Customer Reviews
Excellent sound for the money 
2008-05-30
My mom bought this system for their TV upstairs without consulting me, the audiophile. I had bought a previous HT setup from Onkyo a few years back for our projector.
When my mom brought the setup in, I had low expectations from the small speakers and low feature offering. Now that I've actually hooked the sucker up and have been using it for quite some time (few months), I've come to appreciate it. The speakers are small but powerful, cranking up the tunes on FM to very loud they still sound clear. I haven't had a chance to properly relocate the rear speakers to be in back of me, but the front speakers give a proper surround sound.
Feature-wise, it offers what the average consumer would be fine with. It has component (progressive)/s-video/composite output with a coax digital output for a multi-channel receiver. One big thing to note is that it doesn't have a digital input, only L/R which means that no matter what you do, you won't get true surround sound from DVDs or your cable box. Sure, it can emulate surround sound, it provides some Dolby Pro Logic II features including Panorama mode which can simulate 3D space, but it sill won't be real.
I recommended this product if you want a better set up than your existing TV's speakers, are looking for something low cost, and just want to enjoy your movies with better sound.
I would not recommend this if you're an audiophile, want true 5.1 multichannel, or want a built-in DVD player.
PROS:
* Low price
* Average feature set
* Good DVD playback
* Good quality sound
* Small and elegant
CONS:
* Severely limited input capability
* No digital sound (DTS, DD EX, etc.)
It's a fine unit for the money 
2008-01-28
Unlike the prior reviewer, I've not had any equipment failure here. The unit was purchased at discount from Target for $100, and I have far more than $100 of value out of it. The speakers sound fine. Not fantastic like my Bose speakers from the hifi, but they also weren't $300 each -- so one's expectations needs to match the production cost.
The surround feature works well. I've never had a 'home theater' system before, nor ever heard the soundtrack from one of our DVD films from anything other than our 27" set's built-in speakers. That took a little getting used to (kind of like going from a clock radio to a decent stereo for the first time).
This unit was purchased because we were looking for a system that wasn't large, and didn't look like a silly spaceship or macho pickup truck grill. The smaller speakers have a pleasing wood finish, and are about 5 inch to a side cubes. The larger subwoofer is much larger and needs space to be plunked down. I don't think we have that in the ideal spot, but it works. The 'center' speaker is just on top of the TV shelf -- and as one can see from the picture, it is the volume of two of the cubes. All speakers come with attached wiring that is color-coded. I understand why the engineers do this -- saves a little on the cost and forces the user to not use incompatible speakers to match the impedance, but I wish they wouldn't. Leave it up to me to match speakers properly. However, with the color-coded ends, each speaker wire is unique and there is NO way to make a rookie mistake for channels, etc. Unfortunately, one has to drill a larger hole if you want to fish the rear speakers into an attic or crawlspace to run them unseen. The subwoofer has a separate wiring harness, so that's easy enough with color-coded red/black leads.
The central unit itself is two pieces -- an amp and a tuner/disc player. The visual is very appealing. Glass and chrome, but so small that it isn't an eyesore. There is an annoying blue led light in the disc bay -- would have been smarter to have it shine from the front to the back so it doesn't shine in the user's eye when changing discs. When a disc is in place, it isn't annoying at all. There are connections for sending signals to A/V component TVs (like ours -- the older style with a cable that has the Right-Red, Left-White, and video-Yellow RCA jacks), or composite (Red/GreenBlue Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr RCA style jacks with red/white stereo RCA audio in back from the tv) There's an RCA coax port. No hdmi jack, but we don't have a digital tv so that's of no matter.
I don't care for the mechanical door to the disc spindle. That has to be opened and closed from a button adjacent to it -- and it doesn't seal completely, so eventually there could be an unnecessary dust issue -- maybe I'm too concerned. I would have been happier with a slot-load drive like the Mac Mini uses. But it works, and one has to physically snap a disc on to the spindle so there is no mistaking if a disc is in place.
The front controls are limited to basic functions whereas the remote has all of the controls and management. Am and FM radio is ok. A better FM antenna is needed, and the one provided isn't split to do the best job of picking up stations. But it works OK with plenty of preset options. Using the disc drive to play CDs is also pretty straight forward. The sound reproduction is fine. Not audiophile by any means, but better than our older Sony that this replaced. Some of Sony's workmanship seems to have drifted down to lowest-common-denominator with parts failing only after a few years. At least at the consumer level... kind of a like cheap Dell computers these days.
I give this four stars -- the sound isn't perfect, and the disc tray could have been less 'show-off-y' with the glass lid device replaced with a nice simple slot-load. But the overall layout and lighting of the display isn't distracting, the unit does what it is designed to do, and it allows for an aux input (the audio in mentioned above) where I can attach an airport express and use my iTunes to be a CD juke box or one of those CD carousels. Overall, this is a no-brainer for purchase and setup if you want a better sound than the anemic built-in speakers of many TVs (like ours). We aren't slaves to television, but when we watch, it can be fun to enjoy the film with better sound.
Overall, we've had no problems with the unit. And, it plays our DVD-DL backups of our discs. Our household has small peanut-butter hands that hold and sit on movie discs, so creating DVD-DL backups of the movies we buy, we can keep the masters in a safe place and still have the kids handle and choose what they want. Peanut butter cleans up off of the glass of the unit pretty well, too.
Do NOT buy this product 
2007-12-20
It may look good, but this system is a waste of money. I've had 2 of these systems and had problems with both. The first system lasted 6 weeks before the dvd player started malfunctioning. I exchanged it for a replancement. Alas, the second system lasted 7 months before it started making an amazingly loud grinding noise in the base unit (NOT the dvd player). Unfortunately my only recourse now is to send it back to Philips who 1)won't pay the shipping 2)can not guaratee that I will get a new product in return 3) will not extend the warranty on the 3rd replacement unit. Purchase at your own risk.
